


Frozen in Time

by FrajileMajic



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, M/M, Original Fiction, Originally Posted Elsewhere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 14:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10389102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrajileMajic/pseuds/FrajileMajic
Summary: Tick tock, tick tock. The annoying sound of time passing by. Passing us all by, none of us using that time at all. What would happen if time just froze, would people keep forgetting the time, ignoring it? Would we even realize that time had frozen at all? All of our history of keeping time, would that just disappear as if it never existed at all? Do people even realize there is such thing of running out of time? Well I hope they do, since our time has just run out.





	1. Chapter 1

 Chapter 1

 

Tick tock, tick tock. The annoying sound of time passing by. Passing us all by, none of us using that time at all. What would happen if time just froze, would people keep forgetting the time, ignoring it? Would we even realize that time had frozen at all? All of our history of keeping time, would that just disappear as if it never existed at all? Do people even realize there is such thing of running out of time? Well I hope they do, since our time has just run out.

 

~

 

“I wonder, what you would do if I just jumped off this bridge right now. Eh?” It was a simple question and one that the answer should be quite simple. Martin would most likely say he’d freak out if I suddenly jumped. He might try and go get me, maybe call 911. The works, you know?

 

“I'd probably just leave you to drown.” He muttered causing me to sigh. He must have gotten too used to my questions on these subjects, oh well.

 

“You're such a good friend, Martin.” I said sarcastically, pulling away from the edge of the old bridge. This bridge looked like it was so old, possibly hundreds of years old. My teachers have mentioned it though I never really cared to listen. 

 

“Well, I'd be an even better friend if you didn't constantly ask me these stupid questions. Besides I know you'd never do it.” He mumbled and followed my movements. The both of us then walked off the bridge and into this forest near our houses. We weren't heading home just yet. No, we were going to this little fortress we'd made years ago when we were kids. Since then the both of us had improved on it so that we could go in the winter without freezing our asses off. It wasn't too far away from the bridge we had just left so Martin and I decided to walk and enjoy the dark and beautiful forest. It had giant trees, so tall maybe a mile up. I, of course, wouldn't know and honestly didn't care. Martin probably did, he liked to research this forest. He knew the different types of trees, plants and animals that lived here. He also knew the myths that surrounded it as well. Some were creepy, others were mainly fantastical.

 

Once we finally reached the fort, I stopped and stared at it. It seemed different, maybe a little more worn and ragged. Martin and I would have to fix that later. Martin climbed into the fort first before I followed after him. Crawling in, I quickly settled myself in the giant pillows and blankets that were in there. I turned on a medium sized electrical heater and waited for it to warm up. I set my backpack down in front of me and started pulling out my homework. There wasn't too much thankfully, so we could probably get it down in about an hour. Then my mother and father would be calling me to get home quickly. Martin and I sat and talked for a little bit before we finally started to work on the homework we had gotten from our shared class, AP Bio. It was an incredibly boring class especially because our teacher, Mrs. Moore, taught it. She was a young woman though she didn't act like it. Mrs. Moore acted more like a fifty-year-old woman. It was like a fifty-year-old woman had actually taken residence inside of her. Why in the world did they hire her? I wish I knew, so the two of us usually just sat in semi-silence. We only talked when we had questions or wanted to discuss the newest book that had just come out.

We had just finished our homework and I decided to look over at Martin. He was reading one of his mangas that had just come out. I really had nothing to do with that kind of crap but as long as he enjoyed it, I was fine with it.

 

“So what story are you reading nowadays, Martin?” I asked him curiously. I figured it would be best to know what he was reading so it seemed like I was interested in the things he liked. I mean I was, but just not into anime or manga or whatever it was.

 

“Didn't I tell you earlier, Hollis? No... Alright well I'm reading this manga called One Punch Man. You should definitely read it.” He said, his face lit up when he talked about some of his favorite things. It always made me smile when I saw his excitement.

 

“I'll think about, right now though I have to go. You know, my mom always freaks out if I'm not home an hour after school.” I muttered as I climbed out of the fort. Once I exited, I stood up brushed my jeans off and headed back home. I was already a half hour late from the time my mother expects me back. I was going to get an earful when I finally got home…

 

~

 

“Where were you Hollis? You know when you're supposed to be back home! Why didn't you get back sooner? I swear to god if you were doing those drugs that I've heard about, I'll never let you out of this house ever again!” My mother screamed at me. Well, she wasn't exactly screaming more like her voice was raised. I've gone through this, every other day and boy was it hard not to recite this with her. She continued yelling about random crap until finally she sent me up to my room. I don't know why she keeps doing this, she should know that I don't do anything that she considers bad. I've smoked once but I never got into it after that one time, mainly because Martin yelled at me about how it would shorten my lifespan. So in order to keep him from yelling at me again, I never smoked again. I sat down on my bed and looked around my room. It was a medium sized room, with dark green walls. My bed was pushed up against the left wall which was also where the door to the hallway was. On the opposite side of my room was a dark stained bureau with a mirror directly above it. Then I had my desk with a fairly expensive computer I used mainly for school work. I sighed and fell back on my bed. I pulled out my phone and texted my other friend, Melissa. She was home sick otherwise Martin and I would've been walking with her.

 

_“Hey there Mel.”_ I texted her. When she didn't respond in the first five minutes, I set my phone back down and checked the time. It was about 4:50 and we got out of school at like 2:55. I can see why mom was a little upset; it had been almost two hours since I had left school. Whoops. I grabbed a book from my bedside table and started reading. It was a fairly interesting story that was about time stopping for this woman and with it everyone else froze along with it.

 

I had gotten so deep into my story that I didn't hear my mother call me down for dinner until she was banging hard on my door. Jumping quickly off my bed, I set my book down and opened the door. “What were you doing in here that had you ignoring my calling?” She asked me suspiciously. Instead of answering I just pointed at my book and pushed past her. I looked back at her and saw she had a shocked expression on her face and it looked like she would yell at me again but I guess she decided against it because she didn't say anything.

 

Dinner was always a quiet affair. My mom, dad, sister and I sat around an old table. Our food already dished out, by mom, from when it was in the kitchen. I talked with my sister who was across from me. Raine was basically the perfect child in this family. Always did what they said, had good grades and was in every goody two shoes club ever. Unfortunately, I was basically the opposite, the only good thing was that she and I got along pretty well despite all of that. She was also really pretty, I guess, with short reddish hair and green eyes. I looked almost the same to my younger sister except my eyes were blue like my mothers. Anyway, back to dinner. My mother was quietly fuming in her seat from my disrespect earlier which was her own fault. She'd practically blocked the entire doorway, how the heck was I supposed to get through with her standing in the way like that.

 

~

 

After dinner and the dishes were completed, I headed back upstairs, not wanting to deal with my family anymore tonight. It was like clockwork. Every day, just the same. Walking up the stairs, I was stopped by Raine at the top. She was glaring at me, which wasn't new, just slightly surprising. I hadn't done anything to upset her, so what crawled up her butt and died. I opened my mouth to ask her before she cut me off.

 

“Hollis can you please stop treating mom like that. It's breaking her heart.” She said, her glare not receding. I just shrugged and walked around her, not wanting to deal with her either. Just as I closed and locked my door I heard her sigh and leave. It wasn't like I wanted to treat mom poorly, it was just so hard when no matter what I did, I just got yelled at. I climbed into bed and checked my phone, after noticing that the light had been going off. Checking the messages, I saw that Melissa and Martin had texted me.

 

_“Yo Hollis, doing fine. What did you need?”_ Was all that Melissa texted. I sighed and didn't bother replying. What did Martin need? I scrolled up and found his message. _“Hollis, I need your help. Can you come over soon?”_ Uh oh. That might not be good. I texted him back asking what time and where he was. The message came quickly after I sent it. _“My house. Now.”_ I looked at the locked door and sighed softly. This could only happen to me. I climbed out of bed and opened my window. Right across from my window was an oak tree. It had grown enough during my life that it was safe to climb on. I crawled carefully out of my window and onto the tree branch nearest to my window. Well, I may as well go see what he needs.

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

I sneaked down the tree, quite carefully if I’d say. It was pretty difficult though in the dark. Whatever Martin needed it better be good. I jumped the last foot down to the ground, hitting it with a soft thump. I sighed and ran down the street to my friends, in the next neighborhood. He was only about a mile from my own house and if I ran there it would be much quicker if I ran there.

 

~

 

It was about ten minutes later when I finally reached Martins’ house. I stopped at the front door and took in deep breaths. It had been awhile since I had run, and now I wanted to die. Once my breathing had finally settled down I rang the doorbell. I heard the lock turn before the door opened up to reveal Martins’ mother. She smiled up at me and moved back so I could enter the house. She was a short woman, with black hair pulled into a messy bun. She had very pretty dark eyes, but they sparkled whenever she was happy (which was a good majority of the time.) Her skin was dark but there were some patches of lighter skin, it was different but it was strange but beautiful to him.

“Hello there, Hollis. What did Martin ask of you now?” Mrs. Sanders asked him. He smiled at her and gave her a bear hug. Sometimes he wished she was his mother, she was just so wonderful.

 

“I don't really know what he wants. All he said was that he wanted my help. It was kind of weird.” Hollis murmured before turning to the stairs that headed to Martins room. She nodded and smiled before telling him she wouldn't bother them. Mrs. Sanders walked back over to the living room where I guessed her new husband was. I ran up the steps and opened the first door at the top. Martin was sitting at his desk looking like he was deep in thought. I walked up to him and looked over his shoulder to see that he was studying these three necklaces. They looked super weird. All three necklaces had a silver chain that held three different jewels. One looked like an emerald, the other had multiple different colors in it. The last one was my birthstone, Raine was interested in them one year and bought us all bracelets that had our stone in them. on the homework we had gotten from our shared class, my homework. Gheresand idar our houses. It wasntThe last one was a sapphire. “What are you doing Martin?” I asked him, whilst placing my hand on his desk. He jumped and looked up at me with a glare.

 

“Don't scare me, you ass.” Martin hissed, which only made me laugh. I held my hands up in a peaceful motion and went to go sit on his bed. I pointed to the three necklaces on his desk and asked him.

 

“So what are those supposed to be for? A school project?” I asked him but he just shook his head. “Alright, so then what are they supposed to be for?” He shrugged and replied.

 

“I don't know what they're supposed to be for. I found them on my way home from our fort. They were just hanging on a tree.” I let out a deep sigh. Why does he keep doing things like this? He knows they never work out well. One time when we were eight he brought home a “stray” dog. The owner came to our house a couple minutes later asking for his dog back. Martin had somehow become attached to the dog and cried for hours after the dog went back to his house.

 

I stood up and walked over to the desk. I leaned forward and picked up the emerald necklace, unfortunately it the gemstone turned brown in my grasp. Gasping softly, I dropped the necklace back onto the desk, where it changed back to its original bright green color. “Yeah, every time I touch one of them they change into that gross brown color. Well, except for this one.” Martin said before lifting up the multi-colored one. It stayed that same dazzling color. “I looked it up and apparently it's a tourmaline opal. It's apparently my birthstone.” He mumbled softly before pulling it up to eye level.

 

I picked up the sapphire and felt a calming sensation wash over me. I quickly set it back down and that sensation disappeared. “Isn't the emerald Melissa’s birthstone?” He quickly nodded and grabbed the beautiful necklace, but not before putting on a glove that was on his desk. This one was a bit different from his and Martins’. Instead of the regular silver interlocking chain, it was an intricate design. The silver swirled around one another and lead to smaller cuts of the emerald until it got to the largest emerald, which would land at the base of her neck. “Jeez, don't you think someone would be looking for them? These look pretty expensive Martin.”

 

“I really don't know, but I don't think they do. When I found them, it felt like I had to grab them. I don't think that I could have left them there.” He quickly handed me the necklace, before slipping the emerald necklace into a small plastic bag. “Could you bring this to Melissa tomorrow? You see her first period.” Sighing to myself, I nodded and took the bag from him. I headed out the door but not before turning and waving goodbye to him.

 

~

 

The next morning was pretty quiet; my family was basically acting if I wasn't there. Oh well, what's new about that. Thankfully my sister left me some of the breakfast that had been made. I ate quickly, the bacon, eggs and toast disappearing as soon as my fork had grabbed it. I rushed upstairs and up into my room. I had on a white t-shirt and black jeans before my eyes laid on the sapphire necklace. Grabbing it, and the bag with Melissa’s necklace, I linked the two chains around my neck, put the bag in my pocket and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. I didn't care much about my hair so I left it how I woke up, messy as hell.

 

I climbed into my car and started to play some music while I waited for my sister to get into the car. It was a couple minutes later when she finally got her butt into my car. I pulled out of the driveway and headed over to Martins. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays I had to drive my precious younger sister to school, because one of her older friends couldn't on those days. It was only like five minutes away by car and fifteen when you walked. I stopped in front of his house and honked my horn, who cared if people woke up, it's not my neighborhood. He stepped out of the house, oh boy was he angry right then. He walked up to the car with a glare that could kill. Martin got into the car and started yelling at me. I don't know what it was about, I tuned out as soon as he started to yell.

 

~

 

When I reached the school and parked in the student parking lot, Raine jumped out and rushed to meet up with her friends, no thank you or anything. Rude. Martin and I climbed out and I locked the doors before heading into the school with him. We were headed to his locker when I noticed the silver chain peaking out of his shirt. I smiled slightly and poked him to get his attention. When he looked over at me I pulled my necklace out of my shirt. “Guess we were thinking the same thing, huh?” I mentioned to him after putting it back under my shirt. He laughed softly and put in the combination to his locker and grabbed his books, before looking back over at me.

 

“See you in third period.” He said and headed off to his first class. Then I did the same. I reached the class earlier then I usually do. It was mainly because I had to give Mel the necklace but it was occasionally nice to be early to class. When I walked into class, I saw Melissa sitting in her seat at the front of the class, scrolling through her many messages. I walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

 

“Sorry for not answering your text Melissa,” Was the first thing before I dug the bag out of my pocket and placed it on her desk. “Here's a present for me being such an ass.” She didn't say anything, she only grinned happily. Melissa locked the necklace around her neck and put her phone on camera so she could see it better.

 

“Wow, Hollis. This is uncharacteristically nice of you. Thank you.” She said as she pushed some of her hair behind her ear. “You didn't steal it did you?” She playfully accused me, making me laugh.

 

“No, no. Martin found three of them and gave them to each of us. Isn't he great? I, on the other hand, probably would've sold them.” I said, still smiling. I took a seat beside her and took a look at her. Melissa was a pretty, preppy girl. She did guard, which I've been told is throwing flags in the air, went to almost all of the sports games at our school and even participated in the many fundraisers our school did. She had short blonde hair and dark blue eyes. She was tanned from color guard at the moment which basically made most of her freckles hard to see. Melissa was full figured and it was a shame she would never be interested in me because I wouldn't mind dating her. She was great. Funny, intelligent and sassy as hell.

 

~

 

People filtered into the classroom at a steady pace, until the bell rang. I quickly rushed to my seat in the back when Mr. Corey stepped into the room. He was a short, balding man. Not worth mentioning to people, is how I would describe. Mr. Corey had to have been the most boring English teacher in the history of the world. He was going on and on about this assigned story we should've been reading, I wasn't by the way, but oh well.

 

The class period went by pretty slowly; he didn't talk much mainly expecting us to read during our free time. The bell rang signaling us to head to our next class. I sighed and headed over to Melissa. “Well, see you at lunch.” I told her before leaving the class and headed toward my history class. In this class I had absolutely no one at all. Ms. Price immediately started teaching from the moment the bell rang, letting class know to start. I quickly rushed to her class and went to my seat. Just as I got to my seat, the bell rang. _“Thank god, just in time.”_ I thought to myself and looked at her expectantly.

 

Today it seemed was one of Ms. Prices’ legend days. Every month she chose one day to tell a legend about this town. It was really fun whenever she did these days, she'd always ask which story we should talk about and if we didn't have any, she'd decide on one. Apparently today was the day we talked about the Aviumans. I had heard fairly little about them, only that they lived in the shadows and that’s the way they would stay. I brought my attention back to Ms. Price’s lecture. She was talking about how they first appeared. They used to live on a different plane of existence, the shadow plane. They were kicked out of that plane by their mortal enemies the Canintirians. They had the head and arms of a wolf. They were quite hideous creatures compared to the Aviumans. The Aviumans, had dark feathered wings and thin, scaled tail. There were scales on their cheeks and on their temples. They were much nicer to look at then the Canintirians. When they were cast out of the shadow plane, their elders were killed, leaving twelve jewels in their place. The Aviumans gathered them up and placed them into necklaces which would help to protect them from the Canintirians. With these necklaces, the Aviumans were able to traverse through Earth’s plane without burning up into oblivion. Unfortunately, their luck ran out quickly and the twelve necklaces were separated from one another causing a majority of them to burn to death. Some escaped into caverns or mine shafts, mainly any dark place that didn't get much light. What interested me the most was the necklaces, so I raised my hand and asked. “Ms. Price, why are their only twelve necklaces?”

 

She smiled at me and answered me fairly quickly. “There are many theories, one of my favorites is that they were based on the calendar and that's why we have birthstones. They say that only reincarnations of the twelve dead elders are the only ones that can handle them, and they can only handle their own jeweled necklaces. Isn't that interesting?” I nodded and dismissed the information. Even though that sounded a lot like our own situation, how weird would that be. It's only a legend, doesn't mean it's true.


	3. Chapter 3

Ceres sat up on a thick branch on of tree deep in the forest. He had been watching the two boys down below in their little home thingy. His amulet glowed softly, which helped solidify his decision. Dropping down to a shadowy area in the woods, he moved carefully so that the light wouldn't hit him and placed three necklaces on a tree branch. Ceres knew that one of the boys walked past this area, he really hoped that he would notice them. It was incredibly important that this boy noticed the necklaces. He looked over at the house, just to make sure that they hadn't noticed him. With a small smile, he escaped deeper into the forest, where the trees were so thick that no light was able to get through. This was their haven. 

He jumped up into a tree using his wings to give him more lift to get into the small hut up there. Ceres had done his job and he was done for the day, at least, until the newest elders called for him. Walking into his hut, Ceres closed the door and headed over to the only window there to close the curtains. After that, he climbed carefully into his hammock and wrapped himself in his large wings, to keep himself warm. His tail reached down onto the ground to grab himself one of the pillows that had fallen to the ground and brought it under his head. He picked up his amulet and looked at it closely. It wasn't beautiful like the other Aviumans, it was drab, and boring. A small crystal with a rawhide strap holding it together. As he studied his necklace Ceres quickly fell asleep. 

~

He awoke to hear a rapping at the door. Of course his precious sleep would have to be deprived of, as he had to go see what this Aviuman could possibly want. Climbing out of the hammock, he managed to tangle himself up in his wings and fall, unceremoniously, onto the floor. Ceres crawled over to the door and stood up, dusting himself off, he opened the door to see a messenger. She was a lot smaller then normal female Aviumans that was for certain, seeing as how he had to look directly down at her. It was possible that she wasn't fully born and that was why she wasn't at full height yet. He tuned out of whatever she was saying as he thought to himself. Finally fed up with the fact that Ceres wasn't paying any attention to her she flew up a little to reach his face. Waving her hand in his eyes brought him out of his stupor and got him to give her the attention she needed to do her job. “Sorry, uh... I kind of just woke up so…” Ceres was cut off as she launched into her memorized message. 

“Ceres, you are needed at the council of new elders to discuss the mission. If those necklaces were not delivered, the elders will have your head on a stick.” She turned away from him and flew off to wherever messengers went. Well, that was nice of those batty old freaks. Ceres closed the door and tried to make himself at least semi presentable for those nuts. He brushed his fingers through his hair, and managed to get his bed head to stay down some before working on his wings. Feathers that were out of place were immediately smoothed down back into place. When he was sure he finally looked ok, he left his house. 

~

“You must meet with them.” These five words stayed with him until well after the meeting. How could he do that, they would probably disbelieve of him. There was no way, this story would go over well with any of them and he hadn't even found the last one! What was going on in their brains, how could any of them expect that of him? He wasn't ready for any of this. Ceres trudged solemnly to one of his favorite bars, hoping that that could cheer him up somewhat. This was turning out to be a terrible night. 

Stepping into the darkly lit bar was almost a blessing. The soft music that came from one of their string instruments filtered around, helping him feel at peace. Ceres strode over to the wooden counter and leaned his arms against it. There were no chairs at the counter which was natural for them. If they were sitting they weren't safe, it took time to stand up and flee, while if they were already standing they didn't have to waste precious seconds. He motioned for one of the tenders to come over after, noticing that Lilith wasn't here. She usually was here tending the bar and giving out food orders. It was strange that she hadn't made it into work today. When the tender finally made her way over here, she waited patiently for him to give her his order. “Uh… I'll have the milk brew… with some garlic buns.” Ceres said this fairly quickly, kind of embarrassed from stuttering over something he had ordered many times over. With a small smile, the woman nodded and told him his food would be out soon. She reached below the counter and grabbed the supplies to begin making his drink. He turned somewhat to the side to watch the other bar goers that were talking quietly. They all seemed to be talking about the upcoming freeze. Ceres sighed softly and turned when he felt his shoulder being tapped. The woman was back with his food and his milk brew. After thanking her, Ceres walked back outside and headed over to a small creek that flowed through the haven. It wasn't a long walk, just about a couple minutes until he finally reached his favorite spot. Knowing that it wasn't very smart of him, he sat on a large boulder nearest the creek. He took a long drink of the hot beverage and bit into the large, fluffy bun. Mm... The bun was absolutely heavenly, the garlic taste filled his mouth and he just couldn't help the small sliver of drool that spilled from his mouth. He pulled the bun away and wiped at his mouth, why did he have to be such a weird eater.

~

When he finished his food, Ceres stood up and unfurled his wings. He stretched them out before lifting off into the air. He flew slowly, because he felt very sluggish after eating all of those buns. It hopefully wouldn't take very long to reach his home, since everything was fairly close together. After a few minutes of flying, Ceres reached his home. He noticed the sun starting to come up from the small light filtering through the trees and grimaced. Quickly he entered his house and closed the curtains of the singular window in his house. The freeze would definitely be welcomed, by him. The sun never coming back up, letting the moon have complete reign over the sky. The freeze would last for months and it would be wonderful. The thought of it caused Ceres to smile, no more hiding in this dark, little forest. They would have freedom to roam over this entire dimension. A dark thought intruded on his happiness, the thought that a much worse species would come up and inhabit this world. The Canintirians. He shuddered at the thought of the terrifying creatures that would also come up with them. They were very like the wolves of the human world, except larger, faster and they didn't have a wolffish face. Instead it was like a tentacle protruding from their neck ending with a large snake skull, and their mouth was lined with sharp teeth. Despite their large body the Canintirians could move almost as quickly as a speed of a bear. They literally ate everything they see, meaning humans, Aviumans and regular animals; no one was safe from them. Ceres shook his head trying to get rid of the terrifying image. There was going to be no sleep for him tonight.


	4. Chapter 4

It was late at night; a couple nights after Martin had found those necklaces. I had been up late, finishing up some of the many assignments of homework I had been given. With a deep sigh, I closed up the last assignment. Stretching, I stood up from my desk and fell with a large thud onto my bed. I pulled the blankets over myself and rubbed my eyes. I grabbed my phone; to check the time what I saw got my attention immediately. In bright white letters the time read, 10:30. That couldn't be right, that had to be like three hours ago… Reaching over, I pulled my alarm clock up to look at, and just like my phone had said, the alarm clock read 10:30. A soft laugh escaped my lips; here I was getting anxious over what must've been a stupid prank. 

“Raine!” I called out, expecting to see her stumble into my room laughing. She always had the worst sense of humor. When she didn't come in like I expected, I went out in search for her. I headed down the hall and over to her room. I knocked on the door quietly, not wanting my parents to wake up and yell at me for waking them. She didn't answer, so I knocked again. By the third time, I finally opened her door. Weird, Raine usually locked her door. I looked into her room, whilst my hand searched for the light. Finally finding it, the light flickered on quickly. I saw Raine standing by her bed, looking like she was just about to climb in. “Oh. Sorry for just walking in, but…” I stalled when she didn't turn to face me or yell at me. “Hey, Raine? You ok?” She didn't reply, that was when I was really worried something had gone wrong. I reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her lightly. Her position didn't change at all.

I ran out of her room and into my parents. “Mom! Dad! Something's wrong with Raine, I think we need to take her to the hospital. She isn't moving at all!” Despite my cries, my parents didn't move from their bed. I walked around to dads’ side of the bed and saw his eyes wide open, glazed over like Raines. Stumbling back, I fell to the ground. This was so weird, what the hell was I supposed to do? I got to my feet and dusted myself off. I did a quick check of my mother and found her to be the same way. This was bad, really really bad. I returned to my room and tried to call the EMTs. I only received static. Dropping my phone to the ground, I looked down at it in shock. How was my phone not working? I couldn't call anyone. Not the police, not the medics, not Melissa…. Martin! His name sprung to mind, oh no… What if he was frozen too? He's the only person who could probably help with this. I quickly slipped my shoes on and rushed out my front door, not bothering to lock it. 

~

I reached Martins’ house in a matter of minutes. Or, maybe there were no long minutes. Time wasn’t working, not with what I had seen as I raced to Martins’ house. Cars had been paused in the street, people who had been out for a late night walk, frozen; their eyes that same creepy glazed over I had seen in my family. “Martin! Martin! Open your door!” I called out as I slammed my fists into his front door. It took awhile, but Martin finally opened his door, a glare etched across his face.

“What the hell do you want? Hollis, it is so late right now why in the hell are you here?” He asked with a low growl. I don't think I've ever been more scared of him until right now, which was hard since he was in his fluffy bunny slippers. I shook myself out of it and pushed past him and into his house. Locking the door behind me, I turned to face Martin. 

“Haven't you noticed since you've been up? Have you heard anything in your house at all? I know someone has to be up making noise.” I said, nervously. He has to listen to me about this. Who else would believe me? He shook his head, a frown still firmly planted on his face. 

“Seriously Hollis? Are you trying to freak me out? It’s late, go back home.” Martin spoke softly and tried to open the door for me to leave. Unfortunately, I didn't make it easy for him. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the house. 

“I'm not leaving, alright?” I pulled him further into his house, calling out for Mrs. Sanders and her husband. Every time she didn't answer, Martin looked more and more uneasy. Finally, the two of us went upstairs. Martin shook his wrist from my grasp and barged into his parent’s bedroom, before he abruptly stopped in his tracks. I followed him over and looked over his shoulder. There were his parents, his mother standing facing the door. Her dark eyes were glazed over just like my families. I figured it was the same for Martins father, so I grabbed him again and pulled him back downstairs. 

When we reached the living room, I sat the stunned Martin down on their couch. I sat beside him and rubbed his back, comfortingly. It was an awkward feeling; I had never really needed to comfort someone like this. How did one do it? After a little while of silence, Martin spoke up.

“Have you checked Melissa's house yet?” I shook my head. How had I not checked up on her? Or even thought of her? I was so going to apologize if she was ok. 

“No, not yet… We should really go do that right now. But first, you might want to change out of that.” I mumbled, gesturing at his bunny slippers. He nodded, wiped at his eyes a little. Only now did I realize that he had been crying. It hadn’t been full blown crying, it was just a couple tears. I hugged him tightly and let him head upstairs. 

It was only a little while later when Martin returned. He was wearing dark cargo shorts and a hoodie, with gray boots. We headed outside, Martin made sure to lock the door. I stopped short and realized what I hadn’t done. “I forgot to lock my door.” Martin chuckled softly, despite the circumstances. 

“I’m sure they’ll be fine. It’s not like anything is going to get them.” I took a deep breath and smiled at him. “He’s right they’ll be fine.” 

~

Martin and I finally managed to reach Mel’s home. She was much further away from us. Almost thirty minutes by car, and so much more by foot. I walked up their long ass driveway, like could it be any longer, and up to their lavish front door. I rang the doorbell and waited almost ten minutes before I heard the door unlock. “Mel?” I called out to the person behind the door. In just a moment a disheveled ball of anger. Almost like what Martin had been like.   
“What the fuck gives you the right to disturb my sleep Hollis? Martin?” Her eyes were squinted in a glare at the both of us. Jesus, if looks could kill; I’d be six feet under by now. 

“I’m sorry but can we come in? We have something really important to tell you about.” She thought for a moment before nodding and letting us pass her and into their house. We headed into her well (and expensively) decorated room. She had a large canopy bed taking up the middle of the room; Melissa sat right on her large bed and watched us cautiously, fiddling with the emerald necklace. She still wasn’t pleased with us waking her up. Martin sat over on one of the chairs by her desk and waited for me to explain what the both of us had seen. I explained quickly, not wanting to linger on any of it. I was still struggling to deal with it. Melissa listened to it all, without interruptions. When I finally finished the explanation, Melissa lit up with excitement. 

“So are you saying that we’re living in a fantasy world? That would be so cool. I’ve always dreamed about living in a fantasy world.” A dreamy look took over her eyes so I decided it would be best to snap her out of it. I clapped my hands in front of her eyes, immediately earning another glare. “You didn’t have to do that.” 

I shrugged and almost at that moment a loud thudding sound appeared. Almost like in that scene in Jurassic Park where the T-rex appears. “Oh shit…” I flipped off the lights in Melissa’s room and sneaked over to the window. I kept out of view and gestured for the others to do the same. This was probably going to be truly terrible. I peeked over the side of the window and into golden eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

I jumped back in surprise when the golden eyes focused on me. A knock sounded from the window and the thing outside of the window motioned for us to let him in. I looked over to Martin and Melissa, they both shook their heads. Boy, were they going to hate me for this. I pulled open the window and pushed the screen out. The creature flew into the room and shoved me out of the way before closing the window shut. 

“Hollis what the hell did you do?” Melissa hissed at me. She rushed away from the strange humanoid creature by the window. I shrugged and followed her away from the window as well. We all waited with baited breath for it to speak to us. It felt like an eternity when it finally turned around to speak.

“Thank you so much. I don’t know what I would’ve done if that thing had caught me.” It whispered. Its accent was strange. I couldn’t describe it but it didn’t have a natural tone. It sounded animalistic. 

“What thing? What’s happening out there?” Martin asked. He seemed to have gotten over the shock of the creature quicker than the rest of us. 

“A Canintirian. You have to be extremely quiet or they’ll hear us.” It continued in a whisper. I scoffed at that. 

“A Canintirian, those are fake you know. They are only myths.” Martin said, crossing his arms across his chest, only to be smacked by Melissa. The little being closed the curtains. 

“They are terrifyingly real. Please trust me on that.” It whispered, as it quickly checked behind the curtains. 

“Martin, if that thing in front of us is real then I’m sure that Canintirians are real as well.” I said to him. The being looked offended that I had just called it a thing. I mean I would have called it what it was but, I mean, what is it? Martin sighed and appeared to begrudgingly accept it. 

“Uh-um, excuse me but I am not a thing. My name is Ceres.” Ceres said proudly, puffing out its chest. 

“Alright, well then sorry…. Ceres.” I apologized to it, not really caring about its feelings at this point. All I cared about was just trying to get past the fact that apparently these weird creatures Mrs. Price told us about were real. Suddenly, the air grew thick with tension. I looked over to see Ceres looking grim. The shaking started up again, making Ceres jump back away from the window. Ceres walked over to the light switch and turned them off. 

“Please be quiet.” Ceres pleaded, returning to us. The fearful tone in its voice instantly silenced us. We waited for the shaking to subside, this thing had to have been huge. I looked to Melissa, and saw she was shaking like a leaf. Reaching over to her and I embraced her. I needed her to calm down. She was my best friend, my rock; I couldn’t see her this scared. She sighed softly, calming down, and whispered her thanks to me. 

Finally, when the ground shaking walk slowed and then ultimately disappeared. Ceres checked the window and grimaced softly. It stood quickly and left the room, motioning for us to follow. I followed and pulled Melissa up with me, leaving with Martin close behind us. Ceres dashed forward, leaving the rest of us in his dust. The little creature flew down from the house and into the woods near Melissa’s house. The three of us ran to catch up to Ceres, and as I ran past I noticed weird creatures stalking around the houses in Melissa’s neighborhood, one of which appeared to be a unicorn. I shook my head, shaking that thought from my head. God what was happening?

The four of us stalked quietly into the woods, following along a fairly familiar path. Martin slowed from where he was with Melissa to right beside me. He nudged me gently and whispered in my ear, “Isn’t this the path to our little fort?” I nodded slowly, finally realizing why the path had been so familiar.   
“Why does it know where our fort is?” I whispered right back at him. He responded with a shrug and didn’t speak again. I don’t think he wanted to dwell on that any longer then he had too. Ceres looked back at us curiously.

“Is there a problem?” It asked us softly. Its voice was quiet; like he didn’t want to call attention to our little group. 

“Actually yes. There is a problem,” Melissa stated. I could sense the anger in her voice, which was rare because she never got angry. “Why are we in the middle of the woods? It’s fucking freezing and none of us have a coat.” Ceres looked taken aback at the harshness of her voice. It stopped walking and looked down towards the ground. 

“W-well, I need to bring you all to safety… It is very dangerous out here and there is a safe place nearby.” It whimpered. Oddly enough, I felt kind of bad for it no one wanted to be on the bad side of Melissa’s anger. 

“Don’t you think you should have told us where we were going or something?! In fact, why the hell are we all following after this thing in the first place? We don’t know the first thing about it?” She pointed to him as she turned her attention on Martin and I. Martin immediately withered under her harsh glare but I stood still, returning her look. 

“It is absolutely crazy that we’re following it but it obviously knows something. And I am in the mood for answers, so let’s not piss off the little creature we’re following.” I say steadily. It took everything in my power not to cower away from her killer glare. She narrowed her eyes at me before slowly nodding. Melissa stalked forward pushing Ceres out of its stupor to make it keep walking. Martin was still stuck and he continued to be so until I grabbed his hand and started to pull him along. 

It was a couple more minutes before we finally reached the small little fort. Ceres leaned down and opened the small door before crawling through. Right after Melissa followed, then Martin and then myself. Once we were all through, Ceres began speaking to us. 

“Alright, first off. I am a male. So I would appreciate if you could stop calling me an it.” He took a deep breath and began to speak once more. “First off, I am a Aviuman and we live in these woods here as well as many other forests in the world. Second, the world is in a state of freezing called, the freeze. It is when the world comes to a stop at night and our kind, plus other species. Unfortunately, along with the other species that appear during the freeze the Canintirians come along also. And these things are terrifying, they are almost as tall as your brontosaurus of old. They eat anything and everything. Nothing can satisfy their hunger.” He said grimly. “Third, you are the reincarnation of our original elders. Thankfully, we have found you and you have your necklaces. Which shall be explained more on at a later time.” 

“No. You will explain now!” Melissa demanded to which Ceres just shook his head. 

“I cannot explain your powers to you. Only our current elders can discuss this with you all.” He muttered, turning his gaze to the ground. I rested my back against the wall of the fort and shivered slightly from the cool wall. 

“Can we please just stop talking about this?” Martin questioned, “It’s late and you’ve just dropped a huge bomb on us…” I nodded agreeing with him, I have not had any sleep and I’d love to actually manage to get rest. I grabbed one of the multiple blankets that had been strewn around the area and wrapped myself up in it. 

“I need some sleep before I can begin to process this, let’s talk about this more tomorrow.” I muttered, my eyes slowly closing as my exhaustion suddenly hit me. I listened to Melissa and Martin say their goodnights to each other before I finally passed out. 

~

I woke in the morning expecting to see the light filtering in through my curtains, like they usually would but I soon realized there was no light. Only darkness. It took me more time then I’d like to admit to remember exactly what happened last night. I sat up from my slouched position against the wall and stretched. I looked around in what little light was in here to see Melissa over by the opposite wall, Martin beside me and… Where was Ceres? I took another look around the room trying to fight the urge to wake up one of my friends. Slowly, I pushed myself up, so I could crawl over to the entrance of the little fort. I pushed open the door and as soon as I got past I stood up. “Ceres!” I called out, hoping I could get his attention. After a couple of minutes of nothing happening I called his name again, this time louder. Almost immediately I heard something come from the trees and slam me into the ground. 

“What are you doing you moron? Are you trying to call the Canintirians to us?” He hissed at me, getting very close to my face. I grimaced and pushed the smaller creature off of me. 

“Oh… Yeah, sorry. I might have forgotten about those…” He glared at me before standing up and helping me off of the ground.

“Don’t forget again.” He muttered before returning to the small fort. It took me awhile to follow him, I didn’t want to go back into the cramped space. I wanted to take a look around, maybe try and figure out what some of those creatures I had seen were. 

“Hollis.” His voice pulled me from my thoughts. I turned to face him and saw he looked kind of bothered that I was still out here. That I hadn’t followed him into whatever safety the fort would give us. 

“Sorry, I’m coming.” I climbed back through the door and found that Martin was awake. “What are you doing up?” 

“Couldn’t sleep any longer.” Came his simple, whispered response. I turned my attention over to Melissa who was still fast asleep. “Should I wake her?”

“Leave her alone for now.” Ceres said, before I could even open my mouth to speak. “There is no need for her to be awake, we still have time before we must head to my village.” 

“What exactly is in this village?” Martin questioned him. 

“Well, it’s mainly just our homes and the elders meeting hall. It is not a large place.” Ceres stated softly. 

“What are these elders?” I asked him, trying to get him to answer us in more detail. 

“They are the people who make our decisions. They come up with the laws, find people to enforce these laws and they send out Aviumans to find the original elders. And thankfully, I am one of the first to find three of the original twelve.” I listened carefully, taking in all of his answer. What he said held up with the legend Mrs. Price had told us. So that might mean the rest of it must hold up as well. God, I hope not. I don’t want to be in this crazy ass world.


	6. Chapter 6

The walk towards his village was less to be desired. It was long and cold and my feet were soaked through. It was hell and I just wanted to get there now. I looked over to Martin and Melissa and they seemed to be having the same problems as I did. I looked up to Ceres and saw he was wrapped up in his wings, looking just as cold as the rest of us. I jogged to catch up to him.   
“Hey, how much longer is this going to take?” I questioned him.  
“I don’t know. I usually fly this trip, not walk. But it shouldn’t be too much longer.” I could almost hear the ‘I hope’ he’d left out. 

It was a few minutes later before a tree house showed up. I looked up in surprise; it was giant! Ceres unfolded his wings and flew up to the house and after a few moments a rope ladder was swung down, hitting Martin on the top of his head.

“Ow!” He winced and rubbed the top of his head. He glared up at Ceres face as he peered over the side of the house which Ceres returned with a sheepish grin. 

“Sorry about that Martin!” He yelled out an apology. Martin just shook his head, not accepting his apology. Melissa hid a laugh behind her hand. Surprisingly I had missed that in this short amount of time. She was usually so excitable and happy. It was rare for her to be so angry and I am so happy that her anger seemed to be lost for the moment. She was the first one to climb up, I’m pretty sure that she was getting caught up in her love of fantasy. When she reached the top, she waved down to us. 

“Guys! This is honestly so cool!” She called down to us, even though she was so far away, I could see the excitement shining in her blue eyes. It was enough to make me smile right back at her. I followed right after her up the shaky rope ladder. Once I reached the top, I took a look around. She’s right it was beautiful, especially the view. Surprisingly, the tree was taller than the others around it. Which allowed me to see everything around it. I could see the other parts of the village, different homes in the trees. I could even see some creatures of Ceres’ species. They all had different colored wings, some blue, some gold, and some black. They also had ever changing tattoos, they would change shape and design. It was hypnotic, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them. Shaking my head, I looked toward Ceres; trying to see if he had these same tattoos. From what scaled skin was uncovered, I could see none. I felt a tap on my shoulder causing me to jump in surprise. 

“Hey Hollis, you good?” Martin asked me curiously. I turned to look at him and gave him a small smile.

“Yeah man. I was just distracted over the view.” I lied, but then I heard Melissa say under her breath. “Sure, if the view was Ceres over there.” I gaped at her, I couldn’t believe her. Did she really just say that? Martin laughed and pushed her shoulder playfully. 

“I mean I knew you could swing that way but wow. This is a whole new level” Martin said after catching his breath. My face was flushed with embarrassment. There was honestly no way to combat them when they got like this. I looked back at Ceres, who didn’t quite understand what was occurring in front of him. He gestured for us to follow him into his home, which I did. After my two “friends” had finally calmed down from making their jokes about me they entered the house as well. 

Ceres was already bustling around trying to set up the house for us since we were apparently staying here. He was pulling out blankets from a storage closet and placing them on some hammocks that were already up. “Can you please start the fire?” He asked me and handed to me some kind of weird yellow dust. “Just throw it into the fireplace and it will start.” I nodded, mainly in disbelief. I looked around the room for it and almost immediately saw a small metal fire place. I bent down by it and searched for any wood I could put in it. 

“Hey Ceres, where’s the wood?” I looked over my shoulder at him.

“There’s none, just throw the dust into it.” Ceres answered me quickly. I sighed, well guess it’s time to make a fool of myself right now. I could almost feel my friend’s eyes on me, watching me. I tossed the dust into the fireplace. And… Nothing. Before I could scoff and berate Ceres for making me look like a moron but before I could open my mouth, I heard the whoosh of a fire starting. 

“Oh!” I made a sound of surprise and fell back away from the fireplace and onto my butt. Footsteps sounded behind me causing me to look up at who was there. Melissa was right above me with a small smile. She offered me her hand to help me up, taking it I stood up. “I totally could have stood up by myself… But thanks Mel.” I said, attempting to put up a tough guy front for everyone before I ultimately dropped it. 

“You’re welcome… Idiot.” She added after a moment. Melissa then left me to Martin and myself. I wasn’t a tough guy, that wasn’t me and Mel and Martin knew it. I rubbed the back of my neck, god I was so embarrassing. Martin noticed my irritation and came up to me. He clapped me hard on the back and smiled brightly at me. 

“Hey man, don’t get upset. There’s literally no reason to get so down. You are fine, Hollis.” The last thing sad to me was said quietly, and gently. The first two things he’d said were probably just for show. He knew me for so long that I didn’t react well to people knowing how I felt. He was probably the only person I would ever confide in willingly. I nodded and moved to hug him tightly. 

“Thanks Martin.” He hugged me back as tightly as he could. Which is honestly just what I needed. I may not have shown it that much but this was really stressful for me. I really don’t know what I would have done if my friends weren’t with me at this moment. After a little while, I released Martin and looked down at my feet. “Again, thank you so much.” I turned away and headed into the room where Melissa and Ceres were sitting, talking quietly together. When I entered, they immediately stopped talking and looked up at me. “Uh, hey. When did you guys get so chummy?” I asked. It was weird because Melissa had been so furious with Ceres when we had first met. Like it felt like she was going to rip his head off. Melissa looked up at me and just rolled her eyes.   
“I’m just trying to get information on what’s going to happen,” she answered me. “I still don’t like him.” She immediately added. Sitting down next to the two of them, I looked straight at Ceres. 

“Alright then. What are we doing tomorrow Ceres?”


	7. Chapter 7

The rest of the day had been a fairly slow and everyone had turned in for the night. I on the other hand was still wide awake. Turning over on my side, I looked over at my friends; who were all sleeping in their hammock. I could hear the soft snores of Martin and I could hear Melissa murmuring in her sleep. Occasionally her voice would rise above a murmur and she would almost talk at a normal volume. I stared up at the ceiling going over in my head what we had discussed this afternoon.

~

“Tomorrow we are meeting with the elders. They will give you a better explanation then I ever could for you. They’ll also explain what your necklaces are for and how you will be able to use them.” He answered me. 

“W-wait? What do you mean we’ll be able to use our necklaces?” I asked him in surprise. I hadn’t heard anything about that during Ms. Prices’ lecture. Ironically, it felt like none of what she had told me was correct. 

“Of course, I’m sure you all realize that the gemstones on your necklaces are birthstones,” Melissa and I nodded, so he continued. “Well basically, the type of gem you have you gain powers. Though I have no idea what any of them are. I am in the dark on almost all matters.” Of course he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know anything, which was making me really want to meet up with those elders of him. I turned to face Melissa and saw her playing with her necklace. She looked lost in her thoughts, which made me hope she would come out of it. I’d really like to know what she was thinking about. All she did though was stand up and walk out. 

~

“Aol, nihoso lemth fou sdde?” Ceres’ voice flowed into the living room. I tried to listen in on the conversation but then decided it was pointless and got up to go confront him. I headed into his room and leaned against the door frame.

“Hey Ceres, who are you talking to?” He jumped and looked over at me. 

“You couldn’t understand me?” A look of confusion crossed his face as he looked up at me, “I was only talking to the council about where we should go to meet the elders. How can you not understand me? This is Frelevsy, your language.”

“My language?” I scoffed at him. “I think you should know this, but I only know one language and it’s English.” Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I turned away from him, only to be stopped by him.” 

“Try and listen to me for a little while, I’m sure that you’ll understand it. Please just listen.” He pleaded with me, his golden eyes wide as he looked up at me. Honestly, I couldn’t say no. I was always weak to puppy dog eyes, no matter who they came from me.  
“Fine!” I conceded to his wishes and sat down at the kitchen table. 

“Thank you, Hollis. Now… Let me see… What should I say.” He took a couple minutes before he decided on something to say. “Hollis, nokkabo. E ab pkoalo ers han lasand aro aso.” I shook my head. Nope. Didn’t understand it. “Really?”

“Yeah, I didn’t get it at all. What did you say?” I questioned him. Ceres stuck his tongue out and shook his head.

“Nope, I want you to figure it out yourself Hollis.” Groaning, I turned away from him and headed back into the living room. I attempted to climb back into the hammock only to fall over and onto the ground with a thud. Ceres rushed into the living room almost immediately. “Are you ok? What did you do?” He fluttered around me trying to see if I had hurt myself at all. I pushed away his hands and sat up, rubbing where I had fallen.

“Yeah, I’m fine Ceres. I’m not hurt, just bruised.” I muttered, trying to muster up whatever pride I had left after that fall. “I’m just going to try and fall asleep. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow, right?” He bent his head to me and left the room, probably heading to his own room. I just attempted to crawl back into the hammock before giving up and just lying down on the floor. It was freaking cold, which made it worse to try sleeping, but I finally fell asleep.

~

“Wait, I’m going to have to wear this?!” I jolted awake when I heard Martin yell. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I looked over at my friend, seeing him wide eyed and a little frantic. I swung my legs over the side of the hammock and slid off of it. 

“Martin? What are you freaking out about now?” He stared at me before gesturing over at something Ceres was holding in his hands. 

In his hands there was what looked to be a series of interlocking belts and a long piece of light blue cloth, and it had some gold patterning around the edges of the cloth. 

“Ceres is trying to get me to wear some BDSM loincloth costume.” At that I couldn’t hold back my laughter. Martin could be just too much sometimes. I looked up from the clothing and up at Ceres, who seemed to look mortified at Martins’ choice of words. Though that just made me laugh harder.

“Hey Hollis. Don’t laugh you’ll have to wear this too.” Melissa said as she entered the room, which just stopped me in my tracks.

“W-what do you mean?” I stuttered nervously. If this was karma stabbing me in the back, this was way too soon for it to strike. 

“You get to wear something similar as well!” She started laughing, which only added to my pain. “I’m pretty sure yours is worse than Martins.” I groaned and dropped my face in my hands. 

~

“This is so fucking humiliating.” I complained. Currently I was wearing a long dark blue loincloth that had a silver trim along the sides of it. And I also had the same dark blue color vest covering me. 

“I know what you mean. God damn this is the worst.” Melissa, to my left, whimpered. She was currently wearing a short green dress that had a gold belt and trim. And Martin had been forced into the BDSM loincloth costume he had so lovingly named. 

“Please just embrace it for the time being. I promise that you won’t have to wear them forever. It’s just traditional clothing the elders wear.” Ceres sighed. Our entire walk had been filled with the three of us complaining and he was very clearly getting annoyed with us. “We’ll be there soon so I shall warn you now. Please don’t stare in the elders’ eyes. Just please don’t.” His tone was gravely serious and it made me nervous. Just who exactly are we meeting? 

Our complaints died out after that ominous warning. We just walked in silence until we reached a large ornate building. It was wood, like all of the other buildings we had passed on our walk but this one was different somehow. It felt like it radiated power. I almost wanted to bow down at the presence this building had. Before I could though I felt a hand press on my back. “Please don’t get wrapped up in the power this building radiates.” Ceres murmured, I really had to strain to hear him speak. 

We soon entered the building and I immediately stopped in awe. This was the most decorated building I’ve ever been in. There was a huge fresco-like painting on the building, that depicted a battle between what I assumed were the Canintirians and Aviuman. I shuddered at how terrifying the Canintirians looked. In a circle there were beautifully carved marble columns and in the middle was a spiral staircase in the middle. I shook my head to get out of my stupor and hurriedly followed after everyone. They didn’t seem to be as in awe as I was surprisingly. Ceres headed over to the staircase and stopped at the top, waiting for the three of us to get to him. “Damn, this is the coolest place I’ve ever been in.” Martin marveled. 

“I’m glad you seem to be liking it.” Ceres pushed past Martin and headed down the spiral staircase. We took one last look at one another before we followed him down the stairs. 

It was long and it was getting darker, the further we went down. There was absolutely no light so it became harder and harder to see where we were going. I squinted trying to find at least some possible way that I could see in front of me. It felt like we had descended those stairs for forever. I thought we would never get there until I slammed into Melissa’s back. I reached out to grab her before she could fall down. “S-sorry Mel. Didn’t see yo-” I was cut off by someone shushing me. A creaking sound rang throughout the room and soon a soft glow spread through it, allowing us to see that where we currently were was a huge cave. I saw what caused the creaking sounds was two large wooden doors. And carved on them were our faces, plus some other people we had never seen before. “What on Earth?” After a little while I tore my gaze from the detailed portraits on the door and over to what was inside of the room beyond the door.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aol, nihoso lemth fou sdde – Yes, where do you want me to go?  
> Hollis, nokkabo. E ab pkoalo ers han lasand aro aso - Hollis, welcome I am pleased to see how strong you are.   
>  


	8. Chapter 8

Hot air blew into my face as I looked straight into the glowing golden eyes of what looked to be a giant dragon. My face went completely white and I took a big gulp of air. What. The. Hell. I looked back over at Melissa and Martin and saw that they had somewhat similar expressions to mine. Martin looked like he was about to pass out and Melissa just looked stunned. “Excuse me you three. You need to go in now.” I heard Ceres speak. It almost sounded like he was a million miles away. Slowly though, I managed to put one step in front of the other until I was all the way into this ginormous room. 

“I really don’t know how I feel about this…” Melissa muttered. I nodded in agreement, still too freaked to actually respond. Now that I was actually inside, I could see even more “dragons” in here, there looked to be twelve in total. I heard a thud and looked to see that Martin had fallen onto the ground and Ceres was leaning above him, trying to help him back up. 

“Welcome, Elders,” A loud, booming voice sounded in my head causing me to wince. I almost instinctively covered my ears after hearing it. “We have been expecting you Hollis, Melissa, Martin, and… Ah, I see. The other is not here. Ceres, what is the meaning of this?” The “dragon” in front of us turned his attention from the three of us directly towards Ceres. His eyes narrowed and I almost wanted to piss myself. Jesus, he’s fucking scary. Ceres bowed his head down to the creature in respect before saying. 

“I apologize Elder Tatheis… Her amulet wasn’t where I was told it would be… It’s missing.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t where it was supposed to be?! Are you so stupid that you cannot find a stupid amulet in the place where it was specifically left? There is no way any Canintirian could get through the barrier to get it. Do you mean to get out of trouble by lying to us?” A female’s voice rang through our ears. 

“I mean what I said Elder Shymrirra… It wasn’t there.” I could hear the little quiver in his voice, a tell-tale sign that he was becoming nervous, I shifted closer to him and pressed a hand to his back. I wanted to try and comfort him, it’s not like I wanted him to be blamed for something I doubt he’d purposefully do. I looked up to the creature that was speaking and saw she was about to start up on her verbal assault again. 

“If he says it wasn’t there, then it wasn’t.” I finally found my voice and spoke up against her. She turned her attention to me and snapped her teeth at me.

“Would you be saying that if you knew who the amulet belonged to?” Shymrirra questioned me. “I don’t think you would.” I shuddered at her voice, it had grown cold and chilled me to the bone. I felt Melissa pull at my shoulder. 

“Do you really think that it would be a good idea to get the scary dragon lady?” She hissed. No, I really didn’t think this was a good idea… In fact, this could be my worst idea yet. 

“I don’t care who it is. I doubt Ceres would lose your stupid amulet purposefully, he doesn’t seem like the type to do something like that.” I continued. I must be an idiot. Why do I keep goading this lady on? Her glowing green eyes narrowed and she turned up her nose at me. This is even a thing here?

“Shymrirra, we need to keep the elders on our side, remember? If they don’t wish to help us, then we will be destroyed!” I looked to see where the soft voice came from and saw a smaller sized creature, that looked to be cowering toward her. She seemed terrified of what this Shymrirra would do, but fortunately this seemed to calm her down. The creature took a deep breath and turned away from us. 

“Msasd please take care of them. If I continue to speak, they may refuse to participate in this war.” War?! No way… I started shaking, I could feel my anxiety rising over the fact that I might be forced into a war. Suddenly I felt a hand place itself on my back, and a calming feeling spread through my body. My shaking subsided and I quickly leveled out. The beginning of my anxiety attack ended before it could fully take hold of me. 

“Are you feeling any better Hollis?” Ceres murmured to me and I gradually nodded my head. I wonder what he did to me, I was starting to feel incredibly loopy now, almost as if I was high. I slumped to the ground and rested my eyes. 

“What the hell did you do to him Ceres?!” I heard Melissa demand. 

“I’m ok Mel… Don’t worry, I’m fine.” I said, shaking my head to try and keep away the drowsiness I was feeling. “Please, just tell us why we’re here… Elders…” The way the word rolled off my tongue, felt weird. Like I shouldn’t call them that. 

“Of course Hollis. The reason that you are here is because of the Freeze. It is why everyone in this world has stopped moving, even time. Only we, supernatural creatures, you would call us can survive in the Freeze. But because of this the Canintirians are free to leave the world they had taken over from us and walk freely among everyone. Usually we would have to hide underground and wait for the Freeze to be over to return to the surface but now our original Elders have returned to walk among us. And you will help us fight the Canintirians and return us to our original home, Staithal!” Msasd said. She sounded excited, like she really believed that the three of us could help them. 

“You three and nine others must return to Staithal, send the Canintirians back, and destroy the portal from their evil dimension, Xaecraqin, to ours.” Tatheis added. The other creatures in the room voiced their support in the plan but it was shut down by one loud…

“NO!” Martin yelled indignantly, “Who do you think we are? We’re just people! We’re not like you!” 

“Yeah! We are no way even close to whatever the hell you are. And what makes you think we’ll help? We’re not even a part of this fight!” Melissa chimed in just as bitterly. The creatures looked taken aback at my friends’ outburst, some of them sadness had taken over their features, but others looked downright angry.

“G-guys….” I coughed, attempting to clear my throat and try to clear the air. “Maybe… Um… Maybe we can just find these additional nine others and they can do this… I’m sure that should be alright… Huh?” I could feel just how tense everyone had become from Mel and Martin’s anger. I felt someone walk up behind me before my shoulder was grabbed and I was forcefully yanked down. 

“You’re an idiot, Hollis. An honest to god idiot.” Melissa grumbled at me, her tight grip on my shoulder was starting to hurt.

“Really Hollis? Really? This entire thing is dangerous, why the hell should we have to help them?” Martin argued. 

“Because maybe they’ll just let us go free and we won’t have to do what they’re wanting us to do …” I replied, trying to keep my voice level even though I was starting to get angry. Why was this happening to us? What did we do to deserve this? 

“You three!” Shymrirra announced, “We’ve thought about Hollis’ idea… And we’ve decided that you will go along with it. You will find the nine others and bring them here, and they will help us. Regardless of what they want or what you want. I am sure you will regret this especially once Ceres tells you who the fourth member of your group is.” She sneered down at us and I could see in her glowing grey eyes the contempt she held for us. I glanced over at him and saw him looking down towards the ground. He looked agitated to be called out by Shymrirra. 

“Ceres, what does she mean?” I asked him, staring him down. “What does she mean?”

“H-hollis… The fourth Elder is your sister, Raine.” It was so low I almost didn’t hear him.

“My… sister?” I questioned in absolute and complete shock.


End file.
